‘His happy go lucky attitude is infectious’: Australian imaginings of unaccompanied child refugees, 1970s–1980s

Abstract

In 1976 one welfare officer working at the Enterprise Hostel – a migrant holding centre in Springvale, Victoria – produced a set of descriptions of the refugee children living there. Of one it was noted that: ‘This girl is attractive and very shy, at school she is withdrawn and rarely speaks up’. Of another was written an extensive note documenting her family’s life in Timor and noting that: ‘All of their property was occupied by various Army forces during the war, and resulted in considerable loss of property’.